Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Tsai, Ing-Wen

Lord Rogan: To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Prime Minister has spoken to President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan following her appointment; and if not, what plans she has to do so.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The Prime Minister has not spoken to President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, and currently has no plans to do so.

Ministry of Defence

Type 26 Frigates: Procurement

Lord West of Spithead: To ask His Majesty's Government when the order for the five remaining Type 26 frigates will be placed.

Baroness Goldie: As negotiations for Type 26 Batch 2 are still in progress, it would not be appropriate to release any further information. The House will be updated in due course.

Navy

Lord West of Spithead: To ask His Majesty's Government how much the Royal Navy will increase in tonnage between 2020 and 2030.

Baroness Goldie: It is anticipated that the Royal Navy will increase in tonnage by 59,000 between 2020 and 2030, rising from 799,000 in 2020 to 858,000 by 2030.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Chemicals: Regulation

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their current estimate of the cost of leaving the EU REACH programme and creating an alternative UK Register for chemicals.

Lord Benyon: UK REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals) aims to ensure that companies putting chemicals on the market understand and manage the risks they might pose. Under UK REACH, manufacturers and importers have a duty to register chemicals to access the GB market.The transition to UK REACH has presented some challenges for the chemicals industry, particularly the cost of having to negotiate and potentially pay for access to data needed to support a UK REACH registration. In response to this, in December 2021, we committed to exploring alternative arrangements for UK REACH transitional registrations, aiming to significantly reduce industry costs whilst ensuring high standards to safeguard public health and the environment. This work is still in progress.Our estimated cost to industry of registering under the original UK REACH model is £2 billion over six years; however, this estimate is uncertain and actual costs would be a matter of commercial negotiation. We have recently consulted on extending the existing deadlines for the transition to UK REACH so companies do not incur these costs while we complete the work to develop an alternative transition model.

Meat

Lord Lucas: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many farmed animals have been slaughtered for human consumption for each of the last 10 years, broken down by broad species group.

Lord Benyon: Statistics for the total amount of species slaughtered for human consumption in the last 10 years are as follows: Cattle – 20.7 millionSheep – 127.2 millionPigs – 105.8 millionChickens – 10 billionTurkeys – 159.2 million Year by Year Breakdown: YearCattleSheepPigsChickensTurkeys20122,038,90011,899,10010,034,500873,788,60018,420,30020132,018,20012,447,80010,049,700902,247,70017,518,50020142,071,80012,814,50010,227,200900,382,00015,411,80020152,030,30013,188,40010,627,000953,111,20016,952,10020162,099,10012,844,50010,733,100992,639,10015,568,40020172,092,20013,297,60010,420,2001,036,679,60014,923,50020182,115,20012,817,10010,667,1001,083,094,20016,154,00020192,140,90013,154,70010,862,1001,049,761,00016,093,90020202,137,00013,059,40010,923,4001,096,698,90016,224,10020212,019,00011,774,30011,264,2001,123,196,60011,982,600

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

House of Lords: Location

Lord Norton of Louth: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Harrington of Watford on 28 July (HL952), what research they have undertaken on the availability and cost of alternative sites to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre for hosting the House of Lords during any potential decant of Parliament;and what was the cost of this research.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: DLUHC has not undertaken any work on the availability and cost of alternative locations for the potential House of Lords decant during the Restoration and Renewal Programme. Nor has it led on developing the proposed costings work for the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. In the context of the Places for Growth programme, the Government has previously explored whether space outside London would allow for parliamentary activity. The location of Parliament is a matter for Parliament.

Levelling Up Fund: Northern Ireland

Lord Rogan: To ask His Majesty's Government who is responsible forthe final decision on successful bids from Northern Ireland to the Levelling Up Fund.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook: As set out in the published Levelling Up Fund technical note, decisions on the selection of successful bids will be made by UK Government ministers. In round 1, final decisions were confirmed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Levelling Up Secretary and the Transport Secretary.

Treasury

Monetary Policy

Lord Field of Birkenhead: To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the extent of quantitative easing for each quarter since the beginning of 2021.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: In 2021, the total gilt purchases of the Asset Purchase Facility (APF), including purchases to redeem maturing assets, was £57.7bn in Q1, £49.7bn in Q2, £44.7bn in Q3 and £37.8bn in Q4 following a decision by the Monetary Policy Committee to increase its Quantitative Easing target stock to £875bn. As of Q1 2022, The Bank of England begun the process of unwinding QE by ceasing to reinvest in maturing assets or purchasing new assets. In March 2022, total size of the APF gilt holdings was £847bn by purchase value, a decrease of £27.9bn from the start of the quarter.

Private Rented Housing: Income

Lord Carrington: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have declaredincome from letting property by parliamentary constituency for the most recent period for which figures are available.

Lord Carrington: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people declaring an income from letting property pay the (1) additional, (2) higher, and (3) standard, rates of income tax for the most recent period for which figures are available.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: The number of individuals that have declared property income and that pay each of the marginal rates of income tax specified, rounded to the nearest thousand, are as follows: Tax rateNumber of individualsAdditional higher rate91,000Higher rate543,000Basic rate1,439,000 The numbers of individuals in each parliamentary constituency that declared income from property lettings via their self-assessment tax returns in 2020-21, rounded to the nearest 10 are provided in the attached table.   Please also note that:- Taxpayers in Scotland will not pay the tax rates referred to in the question as they are subject to a separate income tax regime, and are therefore excluded from the figures on individuals per marginal income tax rate, above;- Not all individuals with property income are required to declare it. For example, those with income below the £1,000 property allowance are not required to tell HMRC; and- Some individuals with property income between £1,000 to £2,500 will declare this via PAYE rather than self-assessment. These individuals are not included here.Supporting table as reference in the answer (docx, 44.2KB)

Energy: Business

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatplans they have to remove the VAT on business energy bills.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: Most businesses that are VAT registered can normally reclaim any VAT incurred on energy, so a VAT cut would not benefit them. If a business is under the VAT registration threshold – the level at which they must register for VAT - they can choose to register for VAT voluntarily which would allow them to reclaim VAT on their supplies of energy, subject to the usual rules. Any businesses that use fuels for energy below a de minimis level are deemed to be in receipt of ‘domestic supplies’ and can therefore already benefit from the reduced rate of VAT for domestic fuel and power at 5%.

Buses and Large Goods Vehicles: Fuels

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take, if any, to introduce a fuel duty rebate of 15 pence per litre for road haulage vehicles and coaches.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: At Spring Statement 2022, in response to high fuel prices, the Government introduced a temporary 12-month cut to duty on petrol and diesel of 5p per litre. This represents a tax cut worth around £2.4 billion in 2022-23, benefiting anyone who consumes fuel across the UK – including the road haulage and coach sector. All taxes remain under review.

Energy: Housing

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to removethe VAT on household energy bills.

Viscount Younger of Leckie: The Government has announced a new ‘Energy Price Guarantee’ to limit the price suppliers can charge customers for units of gas and electricity. This will save the average household £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. In recognition of the fact that families should not have to bear all of the VAT costs they incur to meet their needs, domestic fuels such as gas, electricity and heating oil are already subject to the reduced rate of VAT at 5 per cent.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Unboxed

Lord Black of Brentwood: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much money they have invested in Unboxed: The Festival of Brexit; how many people have attended the festival to date; and what analysis they have made of value for money for the taxpayer.

Lord Kamall: UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK is a £120 million UK-wide celebration of creativity and innovation delivered through 10 major commissions. It is not called the ‘Festival of Brexit’.Latest figures show that to date over three million people have engaged with UNBOXED, physically and digitally, and this number will only increase during the last two months of live programming, with two major commissions still to launch.A departmental Accounting Officer Assessment for the programme was published on 12 August. It stated that our pre-delivery assessment of the costs and benefits for UNBOXED showed the programme would be value for money, even where some expected benefits are not monetisable. DCMS has kept the programme under review to ensure that it remains value for money.There is also an independent evaluation of the programme underway. This will consider areas such as job creation; training, development and volunteering opportunities offered; the number of people who experience UNBOXED in person and online; and the number of participants in the learning and engagement programmes delivered by the creative teams across the country. It will be published in early 2023. Unboxed Accounting Officer Assessment Letter (pdf, 180.0KB)

Churches and Historic Buildings: Bats

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) church buildings, and (2) other historical buildings, in the UK are adversely affected by the presence of bat roosts.

Lord Kamall: Whilst His Majesty’s Government does not directly hold this information, we are aware of data through the Bats in Churches project, which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and is a partnership between Natural England, Historic England, Church of England, Bat Conservation Trust, and Churches Conservation Trust. The project aims to bring together the parties to create solutions to allow bats to be managed in churches either by their exclusion or by restricting access within the church itself to concealed roof spaces. The project has accumulated some data about the prevalence of bats in ecclesiastical buildings.This data highlighted that around 60% of pre-16th century churches contain bat roosts, many home to nationally important breeding colonies. Churches are known to house larger roosts than other, natural sites.Of 120 churches with bats consulted by the project partnership, for the 2015 project questionnaire, 90 churches reported damage caused by bats to the fabric of the church building, 81 churches reported damage to more than one monument, and 97 churches reported damage to fixtures and fittings.

Broadband: Rural Areas

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure access to full fibre broadband for all properties and businesses in rural communities.

Lord Kamall: In March 2021 we launched Project Gigabit, our £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Project Gigabit’s objective is to level up the UK by giving hard-to-reach areas access to gigabit-capable internet speeds and, coupled with commercial gigabit delivery, ensuring almost all of the UK has access to gigabit-capable internet as soon as possible.Our Project Gigabit procurements are prioritising delivery to rural, hard-to-reach premises and to those with the lowest broadband speeds. We have recently signed our first local Project Gigabit contract in North Dorset and expect to award further contracts over the coming months.Furthermore, up to £210 million is available for Gigabit Broadband Vouchers to support rural communities with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections.Building Digital UK’s legacy and current programmes have already upgraded over 740,000 premises to gigabit speeds, and we are continuing to move at pace.

Churches and Historic Buildings: Bats

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty's Government what grants are available to repair medieval artwork damaged by bats in (1) church buildings, and (2) other historical buildings.

Lord Kamall: The £42 million per annum government funded Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme refunds the VAT incurred on the costs of repair and maintenance of Listed Places of Worship of all faiths and denominations. Under the scheme, repairs to wall paintings and murals are eligible as well as works to repair damage to the fabric of the building and mitigation measures to reduce or prevent damage caused by bats.A Church of England congregation seeking advice on how to assess and address any damage is advised to contact the Head of Conservation at the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, who may also signpost funders who have supported conservation projects in the past.Those concerned about other historic buildings will find advice on historic wall paintings, their conservation and how to find an appropriate conservator on the Historic England website: https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/technical-advice/buildings/decorative-features/wall-paintings/.The Heritage Fund is currently funding a five year long Bats in Churches project that provides practical help and advice on the mitigation and management of bats. The project gives congregations the confidence to cope with their bats positively while giving regard to their protected status under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) (as amended) and The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations (2017) (as amended). The project runs until October 2023 and will continue to support and enable churches until it closes.

Historic Buildings

Lord Clement-Jones: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have (1) to list, (2) to preserve, and (3) to restore, buildings of significance in the fight for women’s suffrage so that these places are not lost for future generations; and what assessment they made of the challenges faced by those seeking to save Dorset Hall, the former home of suffragette Rose Lamartine Yates.

Lord Kamall: The Department is working through its Arm’s-Length Bodies, Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to list, preserve, and restore historic buildings of significance to the suffrage movement.As 2018 marked the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, Historic England sought, with help from researchers and the public, to commemorate the centenary by highlighting and listing places that played a part in the struggle for suffrage and subsequent gender equality through its ‘HerStories’ campaign. These can be found on Historic England’s website.Historic England have been engaging with the Local Authority, to help secure the necessary repairs to the historic building of Dorset Hall. Historic England established what essential works were required and provided specialist support and advice to ensure that these identified works were satisfactorily completed by Spring 2022.The National Lottery Heritage Fund has also supported a range of projects related to the suffragette movement. These include a partnership project led by the East End Women’s Museum to tell the story of the suffragettes in London’s East End; the Rebellious Sounds Archive’s creation of the first oral archive of women’s activism stories in the South West and Rooms of Our Own, an ongoing project being delivered to uncover the history of the Pankhurst Centre, the former home of Emmeline Pankhurst and the place from where the suffragette movement was born.